Time to start my weight loss blog.

I started this process in December when quite by accident I discovered that our insurance was finally paying for weight loss surgery.  Several years ago I had looked into it, thinking it might help my back and hip.  Thankfully insurance didn’t cover WLS back then, because I really needed a doc to do hip replacement, which I got in August of 2008.  Right after my hip replacement my wonderful hubby got prostate cancer, our new little puppy came down with parvo, I was formally diagnosed with diabetes and lets just say that 2008/early 2009 would not have been a good time to think about WLS.  Both recovered nicely and my wonderful hubby has a PSA of 0.01 and has regained his strength from all the treatments, etc.  With life on track again, I took a health survey our insurance had and for doing it you could get a 30 dollar gift certificate to amazon.com – well you didn’t need to ask me twice, I took the survey and surprise, it came back with recommendations, one of which was, have you considered WLS.  Well heck no, y’all didn’t pay for it, but wait, you do now. 

So in late Jan of 2010, I applied to be in the program.  I’d lost some weight from surgery in December for thumb joint replacement and then a surgical infection and killer antibiotics for 20 days, so I was on a role when they accepted me and then told me I needed to lose 5% of my weight in 6 months.  So on Feb 9th I had my official weight recorded at my doctors office and set out to lose 5%.  I followed weight watchers diet plan and started walking on my treadmill.  The exercise part was slow, I’d lost a lot of muscle in my left leg from 4 years of pain and barely being able to put my weight on it.  I just kept at it and refused to let my body say no.  By March 8th, I had my official weight recorded and was 1 pound under my 5% weight loss goal.  Wow, I felt so empowered and more determined than ever.  I started out at my highest of 290, my official weight was 287 and my 5% goal was 264.  So now I set a personal goal of 250 pounds, on my own, by surgery. 

After I reached my 5% weight loss goal, I received a letter from insurance that allowed me to make an appointment with the surgeon.  I had 5 places to choose from as centers of excellence in the Washington/Oregon area.  I choose the only one that was truly close to me – Rockwood Clinic in Spokane, WA.  A 2 and 1/2 hour drive north of Kennewick, where I live.   Cliff and I went to the weight loss seminar on the 18th of March, I knew most of what they told us because of wonderful places like BTV, but it was good to hear it again from the surgeon that would be my doctor.  On March 19th we celebrated 24 years of marriage.  Then the next week I had my appt with the surgeon and did the psych evaluation stuff. 

Then I waited and waited and waited, or so it felt like a year of waiting, in reality it was only 2 weeks.  Once the Surgeon’s office had the psych evaluation report, the faxed it to my Insurance Case Manager – Riaz and 2 days later I had surgery approval.  Wow, that was a day for me, I did a little dance of joy and cried a little and was on cloud nine — with only 4l4 pounds to reach my personal goal of weight loss before surgery.

I’ll see my general doc tomorrow and get my pre-surgery stuff done and out of the way.  After the surgeon has that, then I will have my magical date.  The first day of the rest of my HEALTHIER Life!!